1. Field of the Invention
The methods and apparatuses consistent with the present invention relate to the management and restoration of an identifier of a storage device, and more particularly, to methods and apparatuses for the management and restoration of an identifier of a storage device for utilization in securely managing the storage device in terms of digital content access controls such as Digital Rights Management (DRM).
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, the rate of supply of digital contents has increased rapidly, and thus, digital contents are often stored or reproduced in various storage and reproducing apparatuses. As non-intelligent storage devices, that is, devices which do not have a calculation function for storing digital contents, general-use storage devices such as a Hard Disk Drive (HDD), a flash memory, and the like are often used. However, such general-use storage devices cannot provide a unique identifier for each storage device, wherein the unique identifier is requested by an access control system, such as DRM.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a conventional configuration of a host 100, and a connection relationship between the host 100 and a storage device 140.
Referring to FIG. 1, the host 100 includes a Central Processing Unit (CPU) 110, a non-volatile memory 120, and an interface 130. The host 100 may be, for example, a cable set-top box or a personal video recorder (PVR)/digital video recorder (DVR) apparatus.
The storage device 140 is connected with the host 100 via the interface 130. For example, in the case of a HDD, the host 100 can obtain a physical unique identifier for the HDD via an Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) interface or the like.
However, such an obtained identifier has a form that varies according to manufacturer, and is not reliable enough to be used in a business model such as a DRM system or the like. Also, flash memory such as Compact Flash (CF) memory or Secure Digital (SD) memory do not have reliable unique identifiers. Thus, a reliable unique identifier which can satisfy security requirements for encryption has to be used in non-intelligent general-use storage devices.